Once Upon a Time
by SheWolfShaman
Summary: It's their final battle, and they decide to spend their last moments together, telling each other the things they never thought they'd say. But it's not a fairy tale, and sometimes the hero doesn't have a happy ending.


**(A/N) I had to write this to get over my case of the feels. It's sad, I know, but I don't care. You have been warned, this story is depressing.**

* * *

_**Once Upon a Time**_

_Heroes are supposed to win._

Slade-bots surrounded us, the flickering lights reflecting off the metal of their bodies like little bolts of lightning. They carried guns, each of them pointing the weapons at us, each ready to kill. Those were their orders. To kill. To not leave any survivors.

_Heroes are supposed to walk away victorious._

I watched as Beast Boy turned left to right, smiling at each of his friends. "We're not going down without a fight, are we?" he asked, letting out one of his care-free laughs and morphing into a lion. He tackled a few of the robots, while the others rose to the occasion.

"Darn right we're not!" Cyborg shouted as he began to take out the robots with his laser cannon, blasting away a dozen at a time. They didn't even have time to pull the triggers.

Robin sprang into action, and Starfire shot out starbolts at the Slade-bots. They were losing their numbers, just like always. I flew into the air, shooting my dark energy at the robot commandoes, while Beast Boy morphed into an ankylosaurus and smashed some of the robots with his bony tail.

_That's the way it works. That's the way it's always worked. The heroes have the happy endings, and the villains get what they deserve. That's the way it's supposed to be, once upon a time…_

"We're doing it!" I heard Beast Boy shout once he changed back into a human.

"Was there ever any doubt?" replied Cyborg with a triumphant grin as he blasted away a few more robots.

"Maybe for a minute," Beast Boy said, smiling and letting out a laugh.

In the midst of the battle, I found myself looking down at the boy I'd been watching for a long time. I wasn't sure, but I felt like he'd been watching me as well. I flew down beside him now.

"Hey, Rae! How're you holding up?" he called to me.

I gave a shrug. "This is playtime," I replied in my monotone. "Let's hope they give us a real challenge soon."

"Yeah," he agreed, morphing into a bull and charging at a couple more of the robots.

_The life of a hero is supposed to be like a fairy tale, a bedtime story told to children, telling of valor, of truth, of love. That's the life of a hero. At least, that's how it should be._

I watched him for a moment more as he fought. I failed to notice the movement of the Slade-bot creeping around me. I continued to blast away at the hordes of robots with my dark energy, not seeing the robot sneaking around. What I did notice was one robot raising a gun in Beast Boy's direction. What I noticed was that Beast Boy was completely oblivious to it. What I noticed was that the robot's mechanical fingers were on the trigger.

"Beast Boy!" I shouted in warning, sending out a blast of energy at the Slade-bot. The mechanical murderer's arm was jerked back, and the explosion rattled the ceiling, creating a hole in the roof which let in a large ray of light. At least that hole wasn't in Beast Boy.

"Hey, thanks!" he said, turning toward me back in his human form. Then his eyes widened with fear. "Raven, look out!" he yelled.

"Huh?" I asked, turning around to see what he was looking at.

I caught the shining gleam of steel as the blade left the robot's hand, flying through the air at me at a blinding speed. Time seemed to slow as I watched the knife twirl through the air in my direction, aimed directly at me. I knew that it would meet its mark.

"Raven!" I heard him scream my name, just before I felt the blade entering my body.

I looked down at my abdomen, at the knife wedged there, almost like I was confused at this strange new occurrence. Warmth seeped over my stomach, and I saw the stream of red leaking through my leotard and down my front. The sight made me dizzy, and I could feel myself slipping to the ground, landing with a dull thud on my back within the rays of light created by the hole in the roof. Waves of pain erupted throughout my body, each one intense enough to leave me gasping for breath.

"Raven?" I looked up and saw him kneeling above me, a look of worry on his face as tears began to form in his eyes. "Raven!"

The others gathered around me, and the Slade-bots took the opportunity to run off, disappearing from the warehouse. The others were surrounding me now, and from the concerned looks they had I realized how bad my wound was. Still, there was a mission we had to complete.

"Go!" I told them, trying to catch my breath. "Get Slade! I'll be here when you get back!" They all looked to each other, unsure of what to do. "Just go!" I told them, wincing at the pain in my abdomen.

I grabbed onto Beast Boy's hand, though. I didn't want to be alone, not now. I wanted to have someone with me. As much as it wasn't like me, I wanted him here to comfort me. He didn't move, and I guessed that he wasn't planning on leaving me anyway. I could tell from the look in his eyes. So, as the others reluctantly went after Slade, he stayed with me, holding onto my hand as I felt my strength ebbing away.

"Rae, you can heal yourself, right?" he asked with a shaking voice filled with fear.

What he didn't know was that I had been trying to heal myself the entire time, to no avail. I knew the wound was too much, even for my powers to heal. I had to tell him the truth, so I shook my head. "Sorry, Beast Boy," I told him. "I c-can't."

"You can't leave, Raven," he told me. "Please don't go."

I'd always been one to control my emotions, always with my stoic expression and monotone voice. I couldn't control what was coming, though. Tears began to roll down my face, and I could feel sobs beginning in my throat.

_Heroes aren't supposed to lose. It's supposed to be a happy ending._

Beast Boy slipped beside me, holding his arms around me in a comforting embrace while he let his tears go as well. "It's not supposed to end this way," he said, his voice filled with grief. "Heroes are supposed to have happy endings."

"This isn't a fairy tale," I told him, my voice becoming weaker and weaker as the blood drained from my body. "I need to talk to you. I need to tell you something."

"What?" he asked. "What is it?"

"I-I…" I trailed off. I didn't know how to say it. Even when I had nothing left to lose, I was a coward. "I've never b-been good at this k-kind of thing."

"At what kind of…" he began to ask, then he met my gaze. He stared deep into my eyes. Through his tears, he smiled. "Yeah, I've felt the same way for a long time. I was actually gonna ask you to see a movie with me when we got home, if I could work up the courage."

"You w-were?" I asked, my vision getting cloudy, starting to turn dark. My limbs felt heavy and numb, and my eyes flickered open and closed.

In reply, he leaned down to me, kissing me gently on the lips. I used whatever strength I had to kiss him back.

"Please stay with me," he whispered, begging me to not go. He turned to kneel above me. "Keep fighting. You can do it."

My vision faded to black, but before it all went dark, I saw a gleam of metal behind him. "Watch out, Gar. Stay safe," I whispered, then I saw no more.

"Raven! Don't leave! Please stay!" I heard him cry out once, but his voice was like a faraway echo.

Then, all at once, the darkness turned to a bright light, and I found myself drawn to it. I flew after it, desperate to get to the light. Still, I turned back one last time. I saw nothing, but I could feel his presence there, as well as another's presence.

"Stay safe, Gar," I told him.

Something told me that he heard those words, but they went right over his head.

* * *

I had watched the blade being thrown, I had cried out to her, but it was too late. I had watched the life ebb away from her. I had held her while she left, had asked her to stay, but she was gone. I watched as the last wisp of light faded from her amethyst violet eyes, until they were glazed over.

With the light leaking in from the hole in the roof, shining brightly over her body, she looked so angelic. Like her body was glowing.

_This is all wrong,_ I thought. _It's not supposed to go down like this._

She was the girl I'd been noticing, trying to spend time with, and loving for years. Now she was laying limp in my arms, completely lifeless. She was dead, and so I cried. I let the tears and sobs come. I cried without thought or care, because the girl I'd fallen for had fallen. I cried, I sobbed my heart out, grief taking over.

"No," was all I could say. "No. No, no, no!"

_No._

I looked down at her lifeless body, imagining that she was just asleep, but I couldn't imagine that. All I could see was the dead girl. All I could see was the girl that I would never get to talk to again. I would never get to annoy her to no end or attempt to make her smile, never again.

_Heroes are supposed to win. That's just the way things are supposed to be. They're supposed to live on, supposed to have the happy ending._

Suddenly my ears twitched up. I had heard the sound of footsteps. Mechanical footsteps. I whipped around, just in time to see the Slade-bot, just in time to see that its hand was holding a gun that was trained squarely on me, just in time to see that its finger was on the trigger, but no time to move.

_"Stay safe, Gar,"_ I had heard her voice in my head.

I clutched her limp hand in mine as the deafening explosion rang through my ears. That was it. I didn't feel anything, just my body landing with a dull thud beside Raven's. I looked over at her face, and realized her lips were turned up in a perfect little smile. I smiled, too. That was the last thing I saw before the darkness surrounded me, then a bright white light overtook my entire field of vision.

I found myself walking throughout the land of white, following the light with a desperate intensity, until I found her. She was standing within the glare of the light, frowning back at me.

"I told you to stay safe," she said, her voice filled with sadness. I could see that the knife, and the blood, was gone. She let a smile creep onto her face. "I waited up for you."

I went up to her, smiling myself.

"I don't know," I told her. I took her hand and we began walking together towards the light. "Maybe heroes do have happy endings, fairy tale or not."

We shared a smile, before finishing our final journey. Together. Once upon a time…

* * *

**(A/N) Happy Feels Friday everyone! This was especially sad for me to write because I was listening to that song from the Titanic while working on it.**


End file.
